Method: Soak chickpeas overnight if using dried ones and cook them (this takes about 12 minutes in a pressure cooker, an hour or so in a regular pan). Mix the cooked peas with the other ingredients (I used dried oregano to flavour the dish). This can be served warm or cold.

Something that can be challenging when you’re living with non-fasting people is making meals that everyone in the household will also enjoy on a fasting day. This baked bean recipe is something that can be used as the basis of a simple meal for the people who are fasting, with additions like grated cheese or sour cream (or cornbread!) for those who aren’t. I served this with baked potatoes and a bowl of grated cheese (which I then tried to ignore). A small baked potato (weighing 125g) will add around 100 calories, while a large one (300g) would add 230.

Baked pinto beans (serves 4)

Ingredient

Calories per serving

1½ cups dry pinto beans

251

1 onion, peeled and diced

20

1 tsp mustard powder

6

1 tsp smoked paprika

2

1 tbsp molasses/black treacle

15

2 tbsp tomato ketchup

7

salt and pepper to taste

0

Total calories per serving: 300

Method: Soak the beans in water for at least four hours and then discard the soaking water. Cook them with two cups of water until tender (about 6 minutes in a pressure cooker, an hour or so in a regular pan). Put the remaining ingredients into an ovenproof dish with a lid and add the beans with their cooking liquid. Cover with the lid and bake at 350°F/180°C for two or three hours, or until the sauce around the beans has thickened to a creamy consistency. You can see by the photo how much the liquid level in the pot drops over the cooking time. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

I’d stopped posting here because I’d mostly stopped fasting, believing that just not eating breakfast and eating sensibly was going to be enough to maintain my post-fasting-diet weight.

Turns out I was wrong about that, and my weight and waistline have been gradually increasing, to the point where I have to be honest with myself and get back to ‘proper’ fasting. I notice from the stats on this blog that a lot of other people are in the same situation after the festive season, so welcome if this is your first visit here and I wish you good luck in your fasting!

So, back to it. I plan on making egg fried rice for supper, and I need something light for lunch just to keep me going. This lentil dal should do the trick. There are two portions here, so I’ll keep one in the fridge for my second fasting day of the week. It’s not the most exciting-looking dish, but it’s warming and comforting on a cold winter’s day like this one (-22°C with the windchill right now!).

Lentil dal (serves 2)

Ingredient

Calories per serving

1 tsp oil

20

1 onion, diced

22

1 clove garlic, crushed

2

1 red chilli pepper, sliced

1

¼cup red lentils

85

1 tsp ground ginger

3

1 tsp ground cumin

4

salt and pepper to taste

0

Total calories per serving: 137

Method: Heat the oil in a saucepan, then stir in the onion and cook until softened. Add the garlic and chilli, cook briefly, then stir in the spices. Add the lentils and a cup of water, then bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for about half an hour to 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Toward the end of the cooking time, remove the lid and stir, raising the heat if necessary to thicken the dal to your desired texture. Season to taste, allow to cool a little, then serve.

Method: Melt the butter in a frying pan over a medium heat and add the sliced asparagus spears. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, or until tender, then pour over the beaten eggs. Sprinkle the grated parmesan over the eggs and add salt and pepper. Cook the omelette until the top is set (about 3 minutes). Fold the omelette in half and serve.

Method: If you’re using dried chickpeas, soak them overnight and cook them until tender (this takes about an hour in a regular pan, or 15 minutes in a pressure cooker). Slice the chorizo and then cut the slices into quarters. Cook the chorizo pieces in a small pan until they exude some fat, then add the diced red pepper and cook for a few minutes. (For a vegetarian/vegan version, just use a teaspoon of olive oil instead of the chorizo.) Stir in the sliced sundried tomatoes, then add the crushed tomatoes, paprika and seasoning. Stir in the cooked chick peas (if you are using canned chick peas, heat until the chick peas are warmed through).

This is a good (very easy) side dish for an Indian meal – but also makes an excellent lunch or supper on a fasting day (or indeed both, if you can save half of it for later on). The spices listed here are just suggestions – put in whatever you like or have to hand.

Chickpea and pepper raita (serves 1)

Ingredient

Calories per serving

1 cup cooked chickpeas

269

1 sweet red pepper, deseeded and diced

37

½ tsp cumin seeds

4

½ tsp fenugreek seeds

6

½tsp mustard seeds

8

½ cup yoghurt (2% fat)

87

2 tsps lemon juice

2

salt and pepper

0

Total calories per serving: 415

Method: Toast the whole spices over a medium heat until they are fragrant, then coarsely grind them with a mortar and pestle. Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and chill for an hour or two before eating (the dish that is – but you could, too!).

In my ‘Does it work?’ page on this blog, I explained that I hadn’t had my blood tested, so couldn’t comment on the way that a fasting diet would affect my cholesterol levels. Recently I changed doctors and the new one sent me for blood tests. Yesterday he discussed the result with me and told me that my cholesterol levels were too high and that I should be thinking about my food choices and my exercise levels.

I felt, well, incredulous. I am now at the lower end of the ideal weight range for my height and build, my blood pressure is where it should be, I’m eating more healthily than ever, I don’t touch junk food, my exercise levels are above average and I have to sit and listen to a lecture about my lifestyle choices? Armed with my ‘too high’ numbers, I came home seething and spent an hour or two on the Internet, trying to work out what the numbers I’d been given really meant.

On the face of it, the high total cholesterol doesn’t look good. And what about all that ‘bad cholesterol’?!

Except… when I started reading about LDL, it became clear that calling it ‘bad’ is misleading, because there are two different types of LDL. The bad type is the small dense variety which infiltrates the walls of blood vessels and deposits gunk in them. The other type is larger and often described as ‘fluffy’: it doesn’t cause the same damage to the blood vessels.

So how do you know which type you have? There are tests which can tell you, but a simple way of determining the type of LDL in your blood is to look at the measurements of HDL and triglycerides. If your HDL number is low and your triglycerides one high, then your LDL is likely to be the dangerous, small dense type. If HDL is high and triglycerides low (as mine are), then your LDL is likely to be the benign kind. And high levels of HDL actually have a protective effect. Turns out, it’s the HDL and triglyceride numbers that are the best predictor of cardiovascular disease – not the LDL one.

Having done this research, I’m now happy with my numbers. What bothers me is that my doctor doesn’t seem to understand them and that I had to listen to his standard lecture on healthy eating. Not impressed…

Another really simple but filling and tasty salad. Lentils take a while to cook, so I tend to cook two cups at a time and freeze or refrigerate the leftovers to use at a later date. If you have a pressure cooker, it only takes 10 minutes to cook them.

I didn’t get around to taking a photo of this dish, but it was so good that I will be making it again (using one of my frozen batches!) and will refresh this post with a picture then [done!].

Green lentil, feta and pickled beet salad (serves 1)

Ingredient

Calories per serving

1 cup cooked green lentils

230

25g feta cheese

66

50g pickled beets

33

½tsp olive oil

20

1 tsp wine vinegar

1

Total calories per serving: 350

Method: Crumble or slice the feta into small pieces and chop the beets up if they are large. Combine all the ingredients and enjoy!

This is a really easy pantry-cupboard salad to throw together when you need a lunch for work and don’t have a lot of time to make one. Canned chickpeas are great for this, but if you’re feeling more organised, you could also cook dried peas which have been soaked overnight – you then need to simmer them for an hour (or cook for 15 minutes in a pressure cooker). Home cooked chickpeas taste better, but canned is good if you need speed!

Tuna, chickpea and sweetcorn salad (serves 2)

Ingredient

Calories per serving

1½ cups cooked chickpeas

214

1 cup cooked sweetcorn kernels (canned is fine)

62

120g (1 small can) albacore tuna

70

1 tsp olive oil

20

1 tbsp wine vinegar

2

salt and pepper to taste

0

Total calories per serving: 365

Method: Drain the tuna, chickpeas and corn and combine in a bowl, adding the oil and vinegar and seasoning to taste. If you’re using frozen corn, steam or microwave it for a minute or two and allow to cool before combining it with the other ingredients.